Sooner Football Recruiting for 2016 Off to Slow Start
By Chip Rouse
It is hardly time to panic about 2016 football recruiting when most of the 2015 recruiting class hasn’t even taken the field yet, but the fact remains that Sooner football currently stands 53rd in the Scout.com recruiting rankings.
And if you think Scout.com is off the mark, think again. Rivals.com has the Sooners even lower, at No. 55 in the 2016 recruiting team rankings. Only Kansas and Kansas State rank lower than the Sooners at this admittedly early stage of the 2016 recruiting process. And the Jayhawks are only 19 spots away from Oklahoma, at No. 74, according to the Rivals.
As of this week, the Sooners have five commitments for the class of 2016. The most recent to commit to play ball at OU beginning in the fall of 2016 is Logan Roberson, a 6-5, 318-pound offensive lineman from in-state in Harrah, Okla.
Dec 6, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners running back Keith Ford (21) runs after a catch against the Oklahoma State Cowboys during the second quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Another in-state commit for the 2016 class is linebacker Jon-Michael Terry, a 6-2, 225-pound player rated as three stars by Rivals.com. Terry hails from Oklahoma State territory in Tulsa.
Two players from Texas have given verbal commitments to the Sooners: Adrian Hardy, from Houston, is listed as an athlete, and Ryan Parker is a 6-2 wide receiver from Tyler. Rivals rates both players as three stars. Parker will come with junior-college experience.
The highest rated of the five early 2016 commitments is four-star quarterback Austin Kendall. Kendall stands 6-2 and is rated as No. 72 on the Rivals Top 100 list and the No. 4 overall player in the state of North Carolina, which is where he is from.
Granted this is still very early in the recruiting process for the 2016 season, but it is indicative how competitive the process is these days. It should also be pointed out that verbal commitments are not binding. Players can change their mind and opt to sign a binding letter of intent with another school on National Signing Day in early February of next year.
By contrast, TCU currently has 13 commits for 2016. Baylor has 11. Texas Tech leads all Big 12 schools at this time, with commitments from 18 players.
Texas, which almost always brings in a recruiting class ranked in the top 15, and often in the top 10, reports just five commits for 2016 at this point in the process and ranks 30th, according to Scout.com, and 49th in the Rivals rankings.
There is a discrepancy between where the Big 12 schools rank on the Scout.com list and Rivals.com. Scout.com has TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech higher in the 2016 recruiting team rankings.
TCU is No. 9 on Scout.com. Baylor is 15th and Tech 21st. Rivals, however, lists Texas Tech has the highest-rated school in the conference, at No. 16, with TCU at 19 and Baylor 23.